Word MeaningLecture # 6

Grigoryeva M.

Word Meaning

Approaches to word meaning

Meaning and Notion (понятие)

Types of word meaning

Types of morpheme meaning

Motivation

Each word has two aspects:

the outer aspect ( its sound form) cat

the inner aspect (its meaning) long-legged, fury animal with sharp teeth

Sound and meaning do not always constitute a constant unit even in the same language

EX a temple

a part of a human head a large church

Semantics (Semasiology)

Is a branch of lexicology which studies the

meaning of words and word equivalents

Approaches to Word Meaning

The Referential (analytical) approach

The Functional (contextual) approach

Operational (information-oriented) approach

The Referential (analytical) approach

formulates the essence of meaning by establishing the interdependence between words and things or concepts they denote

distinguishes between three components closely connected with meaning:

the sound-form of the linguistic sign,

the concept

the actual referent

Basic Triangle

concept (thought, reference) – the thought of the object that singles out its essential features

referent – object denoted by the word, part of reality

sound-form (symbol, sign) – linguistic sign

concept – flower

sound-form referent [rәuz]

Meaning and Sound-form

are not identical

different

EX. dove - [dΛv] English sound-forms

[golub’] Russian convey one

[taube] German and

the same meaning

Meaning and Sound-form nearly identical sound-forms have different

meanings in different languages

EX. [kot] English – a small bed for a child

[kot] Russian – a male cat

identical sound-forms have different meanings (homonyms)

EX. knight [nait]

night [nait]

Meaning and Sound-form

even considerable changes in sound-form do not affect the meaning

EX Old English lufian [luvian] – love [l Λ v]

Meaning and Concept

concept is a category of human cognition concept is abstract and reflects the most

common and typical features of different objects and phenomena in the world

concept is almost the same for the whole humanity in one and the same period of its historical development

meanings of words are different in different languages

Meaning and Concept identical concepts may have different semantic

structures in different languages

EX. concept “a building for human habitation” – English Russian HOUSE ДОМ

+ in Russian ДОМ “fixed residence of family or household In English HOME

Meaning and Referent

one and the same object (referent) may be denoted by more than one word of a different meaning

cat pussy animal tiger

Functional Approach studies the functions of a word in speech meaning of a word is studied through relations of it with

other linguistic units

EX. to move (we move, move a chair)

movement (movement of smth, slow movement)

The distriution ( the position of the word in relation to

others) of the verb to move and a noun movement is

different as they belong to different classes of words and

their meanings are different

Operational approach

is centered on defining meaning through its role in the process of communication

EX John came at 6Beside the direct meaning the sentence may imply that: He was late He failed to keep his promise He was punctual as usual He came but he didn’t want to

The implication depends on the concrete situation

Lexical Meaning and Notion

Notion denotes the reflection in the mind of real objects

Notion is a unit of thinking

Lexical meaning is the realization of a notion by means of a definite language system

Word is a language unit

Lexical Meaning and Notion Notions are

international especially with the nations of the same cultural level

Meanings are nationally limited

EX GO (E) ---- ИДТИ(R)“To move”BUT !!! To GO by bus (E) ЕХАТЬ (R)

EX Man -мужчина, человекОна – хороший человек (R)She is a good person (E)

Types of Meaning

types of meaning

grammatical meaning lexico-grammatical

meaninglexical meaning

denotational connotational

Grammatical Meaning

component of meaning recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words

EX. girls, winters, toys, tables – grammatical meaning of plurality

asked, thought, walked –

meaning of past tense

Lexico-grammatical meaning(part –of- speech meaning) is revealed in the classification of lexical items

into major word classes (N, V, Adj, Adv) and minor ones (artc, prep, conj)

words of one lexico-grammatical class have the

same paradigm

Lexical Meaning

is the meaning proper to the given linguistic unit in all its forms and distributions

EX . Go – goes - went

lexical meaning – process of movement

Aspects of Lexical meaning

The denotational aspect

The connotational aspect

The pragmatic aspect

Denotational Meaning

“denote” – to be a sign of, stand as a symbol for”

establishes the correlation between the name and the object

makes communication possible

EX booklet

“a small thin book that gives info about smth”

Connotational Meaning

reflects the attitude of the speaker towards what he speaks about

it is optional – a word either has it or not

Connotation includes: The emotive charge EX Daddy (for father) Intensity EX to adore (for to love) Imagery EX to wade “to walk with an effort”

to wade through a book

The pragmatic aspect

associations concern the situation in which the word is uttered,

the social circumstances (formal, informal, etc.), social relationships between the interlocutors

(polite, rough, etc.), t the type and purpose of communication (poetic,

official, etc.)

EX horse (neutral) steed (poetic) nag (slang) gee-gee (baby language)

Types of Morpheme Meaning

lexicaldifferential functionaldistributional

Lexical Meaning in Morphemes

root-morphemes that are homonymous to words possess lexical meaning

EX. boy – boyhood – boyish

affixes have lexical meaning of a more generalized character

EX. –er “agent, doer of an action”

Lexical Meaning in Morphemes

has denotational and connotational components

EX. –ly, -like, -ish – denotational meaning of similiarity womanly, womanlike, womanishconnotational component – -ly (positive evaluation), -ish (deragotary)

женственный - женоподобный

Differential Meaning

a semantic component that serves to distinguish one word from all others containing identical morphemes

EX. cranberry, blackberry, gooseberry

Functional Meaning

found only in derivational affixes a semantic component which serves to

refer the word to the certain part of speech

EX. just, adj. – justice, n.

Distributional Meaning

the meaning of the order and the arrangement of morphemes making up the word

found in words containing more than one morpheme

different arrangement of the same morphemes would make the word meaningless

EX. sing- + -er =singer,

-er + sing- = ?

Motivation

denotes the relationship between the phonetic or morphemic composition and structural pattern of the word on the one hand, and its meaning on the other

can be phonetical

morphological

semantic

Phonetical Motivation

when there is a certain similarity between the sounds that make up the word and those produced by animals, objects, etc.

EX. sizzle, boom, splash, cuckoo

Morphological Motivation

when there is a direct connection between the structure of a word and its meaning

EX. finger-ring – ring-finger,

A direct connection between the lexical meaning

of the component morphemes

EX think –rethink “thinking again”

Semantic Motivation

based on co-existence of direct and figurative meanings of the same word

EX a watchdog –”a dog kept for watching property” a watchdog – “a watchful human guardian” (semantic motivation)